April 13 Meeting of the FGBC

Much news to report. Let's get down to it, shall we...

First, attendance. Another newish face, as you will see...
- penner, chris, hal, marles, jonny, secretary, unger, and, yes, aiden se ("se" standing for super esquire).

Well, top of the news was jonny's email to the original FGBC, thanking them for their product, letting them know that we've kind of named our club in parallel with theirs, that we sometimes ride bikes and almost always consume their esteemed product. That was a week or two ago. The recent reply was in the nature of "Good show. Let us know about an event and we'll supply some free product." So, that's a fairly huge response to a potentially dangerous initial contact. The idea of a corporate interfacing portfolio was discussed. I suspect jonny's got it sewed up at this point. It's that darn disarming smile that he puts on in his emails... We'll see where this goes... it was never really, actually, pointedly mentioned that we are working with something of a parallel logo...

Marles is still on sticker detail.... thinking that a 1.5 x 5" effort with "fortgarrybikeclub.com" on it might be nice... so, with that thought, and the news that we are closer than ever to coming out of the closet with the larger FGBC, there was some concern about our level of profile. Jonny closed the discussion with the assertion that, "we are exactly what we are". Done.

Next Race: Garbage Hill, Sunday April 18 @ 2:00pm. Meet at the main gate at the SW corner.
A few members have been enjoying the challenge of Garbage Hill, none more than Hal who got his doors (figuratively speaking of course) blown off by some hot shot on a single speed. There is more than one FGBC member who is skeptical of even making one round on a bike with more gears than we know how to use. (Yes, I realize this is a very strong argument for the single-speed.)

Further to single speeding... Hal reported that the winner at the single speed world championships literally gets branded. It seemed like a good idea for us to consider such an honor for some winner at the big annual ride in June.

Birch discussion: The most recent news on the opening of the Birch riding area is that it's a maybe, but we're making plans to be ready if it does open. The requirements are a) membership in a club which is signed up ($150), and then b) at the very minimum, the plain $5 membership with the MCA. The significant option we're exploring is hooking up with the Tinker Creek guys, and thus dropping the per person amount. It is unclear whether we can exist as a "sister" club, or whether we take the Tinker colours to get through the hoops. Unger is working on the details. Stay tuned for a deadline date to submit a few $$$ to be in. Seven FGBC have made verbal commitments to ante up.

There was contact with the Duke in the last week. He seems confident that he will join us for the spring ride. He's also encouraging the beers and bike stands event to get his ride in order. A fine idea around this emerged, where we would pay Colin B (neighbour of Chris' and bike repair guy) for a group afternoon in his garage. The technical director is looking into this.

Finally, there was once again debate on how to measure results at the upcoming catwalk competition at the spring ride... distance or time?

and how do we factor in the all important style points?

... well, that ranks right up there with, "what's the meaning of life?" doesn't it?